DOCU14ENT RESUME

ED 346 082 SP 033 846

AUTHOR Mead, James V.TITLE Looking at Old Photographs: Investigating the Teacher

Tales that Novice Teachers Bring with Them.Revised.

INSTITUTION National Center for Research on Teacher Learning,East Lansing, MI.

SPONS AGENCY Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED),Wachington, DC.

REPORT NO NCRTL-RR-92-4PUB DATE May 92NOTE 20p.AVAILABLE FROM The National Center for Research on Teacher Learning,

116 Erickson Hall, Michigan State University, EastLansing, MI 49824-1034 ($5.70).

PUB TYPE Reports - Descriptive (141)

EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS Affective Measures; 'Affective Objectives;

*Educational Experience; Elementary SecondaryEducation; Higher Education; Metscognition;Preservice Teacher Education; 'Recall (Psychology);Reminiscence; *Story Telling; Teacher Educators

IDENTIFIERS 'Former Teachers; Interpretive Validity; ReflectiveThinking; 'Teacher Candidates

ABSTRACTThis paper presents stories prospective teachers tell

about interactions with and evaluations of former teachers. Theseinteractions between remembrances of past school experiences andprojected or current teaching practice have the potential toreinterpret the past making it useful in the present. Data weregathered from interviews and an analytic distinction is drawn betweenthe stories themselves and the particular beliefs or action theoriesthe informants value. For teacher educators, the tales are stronglyrelated to present beliefs about teaching. Remembrance potentiallyforms a powerful part, negative or positive, of learning to teach.Memories represent one source of material which assists teachercandidates to grow into reflective professionals and is a tool with amultitude of uses for teacher educators. Teacher tales represent onereasonable point to initiate revision of the past, and moreimportantly challenge present beliefs. (Author/LL)

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* from the original document. *

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-PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THISMATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY

TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."

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Research Report 92-4

LOOKING AT OLD PHOTOGRAPHS: INVESTIGATINGTHE TEACHER TALES THAT NOVICE TEACHERS BRING WITH MEM

James V. Mead

Published by

The National Center for Research on Teacher Learning116 Erickson Hall

Michigan State UniversityEast Lansing, Michigan 48824-1034

May 1992

This work is sponsored in ',art by the National Center for Research on TeacherLearning, College of Education, Michigan State University. The National Center forResearch on Teacher Learning is funded primarily by the Office of Educational Researchand improvement, United States Department of Education. The opinions expressed in thispaper do not necessarily represent the position, policy, or endorsement of the Office or theDepartment.

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The National Center far Research an Teacher Learning (NCRTL) 1 was foundedat Michigan State University in 1915 with a grant from the Office of EducationalResearch and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education.

The NCRTL is committed to research that will contribute to the improvementof tezcher education and teacher learning. To further its mission, the NCRTLpublishes research reports. issue papers, technical series, conference proceedings, andspecial reports on contemporary issues in teacher education. For more informationabout the NCRTL o to bt placed on in mailing list, please write to the Editor,National Center for Research on Teacher Learning, 116 Erickson Hall, MichiganState University, East Lansing, Nfichigan 41824-1034.

Director: Mary M. Kennedy

Associate Director G. Williamson McDiarmid

Program Directors: Linda Anderson, Deborah Ball, ON. McDiarmid

Director of Dissemination: Cass Book

Project Manager: Anne Schuller

Editor: Sandra Gross

Many papers published by the NCRTL are based on the Teacher Education andLearning to Teach Study (TELT), a single multisite longitudinal study. Theresearchers who have contributed to this study are listed below:

Marianne AmarelDeborah Loewenberg BallJoyce CainSandra CeliaBarbara CamilleriAnne ChangDavid K. CohenAda Beth CutlerSharon Feiman-NemserMary L. GomezSamgeun K. KwonMagdalene LampertPerry LanierGlenda LappinSarah McCartheyJames MeadSusan Meinick

Monica 146tchellHarold Morganlames MosenthalGary Nettie noBarbara NeufeldLynn PaineWchelle ParkerRichard PrawatPamela SchramTrish StoddartM. Teresa TattoSandra Wilco:Suzanne WilsonLauren YoungKenneth M. ZeichnerKaren K. Zumwalt

'Formerly known as the National Center for Research on Teacher Education(1985-1990), the Center was renamed in 1991,

Abstract

This paper describes the interaction between remembrances of past school experience andprojected or current teaching practices. The author draws an analytic distinction betweenthe stories themselves and the particular beliefs or action theories the informants value. Forteacher educators, the tales are strongly related to present beliefs about teaching.Remembrance potentially forms a powerful partnegative or positiveof learning to teach.The author suggests that "old photographs" provide a potentially exciting teachablemoment.

LOOKING AT OLD PHOTOGRAPHS: INVESTIGATINGTHE TEACHER TALES THAT NOVICE TEACHERS BRING WITH THEM

James V. Mead'

As I analyzed teachers' remembrances of their experiences in school, they remindedme of a personal memory. When I was 10 years old I often visited my peat-grandmother.A large cigar box in the back parlor contained my favorite activity. In the box were sepiadouble photographs taken in the late 1800s, which I looked at with a stereographicmagnifier Most of these daguerreotypes were portraits of people in my family and theirfriends. My attention flagged quickly because I did not recognize the people portrayed. Butthe activity came alive when my great-gandmother sat and described the people I saw.Teachers' tales of their school days share many elements with my viewing those sepiaphotopaphs.

The informants whose tales I analyzed describe significant teachers like snapshotsfrom the past. Molding the stories about the past serves a variety of communicativepurposes. My great-grandmother selected certain features of the photographs to talk about.Her commentaty provided heightened entertainment value to speaker and listener, ahd herstories piqued my interest. Novice teachers, besides telling entertaining tales about teachingfrom times past, also use the anecdote to demonstrate their developing teaching expertiseby grounding their beliefs in a tale about "real teachers."

My story about my great-grandmother formed an unfinished propositional bridge not

grounded in my present experienceuntil I wrote this paper. The story works on severailevels to illustrate my point. First, I am the lone survivor of the "experience"; The readerhas to trust what I say happened. I selected a single small set of experiences from are.-..dtitude of memories. The tale, moreover, provides an appealing personal disclosure tocreate empathy between author and reader.

Second, I am using the single personal experience to illustrate my present beliefabout a large set of data. This belief generalizes well beyond myself and my ownexperience. This mirrors what the novices do when they use a single experience to justifythe way they think they should act in the classroom.

1James V. Mead, doctoral candidate in educational administration at Michigan State University, is the archivist for theNational Center for Research on Teacher Learning. The author expresses appreciation to the following people for theirhelpful comments and assistance in preparing this paper. Christopher M. Clark, Jeannine Cormier, Maly M. Kennedy, JoannJ. Mead, and Michelle Parker. The encouragement and guidance of Robert E. Floden and BM McDiarmid beyond normalbounds is deeply appreciated and needs special recognition. The paper is dedicated to the memory of the author's great-grandmother who provided the activity that inspired this reflection.

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Third, I have "thimted down" the experience and molded it to make my point. I

cannot remember the reality of the experience precisely. I forget how often I looked at

those photographs beyond it happening at least two or three times. The details I am unable

to recall from 30 years ago do not detract from the utility of the story.Fourth, what I reported raises a set of questions that parallel what we can ask the

novices about their remembered teacher. The tale's significance does not lie in speculating

whether it happened but in what it tells the listener about my present belief. If a novice

teacher tells us about this great or bad teacher, I want to know how that belief fits into the

novice's broader vision of teaching.My recollection captures the tenuous link oi causality to some memory established

all those years ago. What these teachers and my great-grandmother recount is a history that

smooths out irregularities and discontinuities (Huberman, 1989) to serve some story-telling

purpose. The interviewees describe events they claim to have observed when they were

students. But it is not as a phenomenon from the past that I am interested in teacher tales.

These tales of former teachers differ significantly from Lortie's "apprenticeship of

observation" that holds for every child who goes through school (Lortie, 1975). Lortie's

description lead others to conclude that the apprenticeship is either faulted or unhelpful

(Buchmann, 19871); Feiman-Nemser & Buchmann, 1986; Little, 1981; Zeichner, Tabernick,

& Densmore, 1987).When the past exclusively Worms the present we condemn the passive "learning

process" that occurs. However, here the present informs and shapes the past. In the teacher

tales, the recollection of the past is actively shaped by the present. The phenomenon of

interest to me is situated in the present that is the window onto a vision of teaching the

novice now holds. It just happens that access to the present lies in going through the past.

The tales produce a feeling of connection between abelief aspiring teachers hold and

a describable behavior. Imagine you were a novice sitting in an interview. You wished to

tellfor whatever motivethe interviewer a belief you felt. What better way than to pull out,

as it were, an old treasured photoraph of a former teacher. The teacher pictured in the

photograph and the associated tale stand as concrete proof of any belief or behavior the

aovice wishes to tell us about.The data, from the Teacher Education and Learning to Teach Study (TELT) of the

National Center for Research on Teacher Education,' support the conclusion that novices

invest emotional value in these memories. This suggests that educators should handle these

2The precursor to the National Center for Research on Teacher Learning,

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teacher tales, these shared photographs of the past, with care. It is too easy to dismiss thesepersonalized contributions, these student attempts to represent ideas and beliefs incommunicable form, as distracting from the generalized and depersonalized reflectionthought appropriate in university classes. The TELT data indicate that teacher candidatesmake frequent use of teacher tales suggesting to teacher educators these narratives mightdeserve a closer look.

SampleThis paper describ,ts the stories prospective teachers (elementary, secondary English,

and mathematics) tell about interactions with and evaluations of their former teachers. Theteacher tales come from 95 interviews gathered by researchers from the National Center forResearch on Teacher Education as part of the TELT study, a four-year longitudinal studyof teachers' knowledge and beliefs in 11 teacher education programs (NCRTE, 1988).Although the instruments were designed to capture the significance of prospective teachers'past, they were not designed with this particular analysis in mind.

Informants for this analysis came from five preservice training institutions and twoinduction programs. The sample generated for intensive study by the NCRTE is detailedelsewhere by Ball and McDiarmid (1988). Briefly, the sites studied were selected torepresent various features thought important in educating teachers. Within each site arandom sample of all students in the selected program was drawn and studied intensively.

During their first interview, researchers asked teachers, "What do you rememberabout your elementary and secondary school experience?" The script also included aprobe"What stands out about elementary or secondary school?' Depending on whetherthe informant was a prospective elementary or secondary subject teacher, the interviewerasked, "What do you remember about mathematics (and/or writing) in elementary andsecondary school?' Elementary teachers were asked about both subjects while secondaryteachers were asked only about the subject they intended to teach. After an informant'sinitial response, interviewers asked a series of probes designed to get them to elaborate.For this analysis, I drew on 159 explicit references to particular teachers in 95 interviews.These descriptions formed the basis of the analysis.

The preservice teachers in the TELT study intended to teach various 1(-12 agegroups; a small number did not intend to teach when they graduate. At the time these datawere collected, the students were working toward either bachelor's or master's degrees intheir chosen field. One induction program recruited participants with degrees from otherfields and certified them to teach in the state. This induction program, run by a school

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district, trained teachers as they worked for the district over a two-year period. The second

induction program, run by a university, had the teachers in schools by special arrangement

with a local district.

Analysis

I analyzed and coded descriptions of teacher tales accordin11r to the content of the

story given. Initially, I coded whether the evaluation of the teacher was positive or negative,

the gender and subject area specialty of the teacher described, aild the inferences the

informant drew from the story. I used descriptors such as subject matter expel tise and

emotional bond to describe as accurately as possible, in the informants' terms, the "plot" of

their description. The "plot" represents the "thinned" essence or belief the informant chose

to focus on.To elaborate on the patterns, I used data elicited by another question on the same

interview: "What attracted you to teaching?" Responses describing the personal attraction

of teaching revealed a pattern. Informants elaborated on the quality ascribed to a former

teacher in response to why the informant wanted to teach. This question also yielded some

descriptions of former teachers to support the informants' choice of teaching.

Report on the DataThe tales that the teachers told lack detail about subject matter and learning.

Beyond some vague labelling and a specific learning activity of short duration the subject

matter plays a small role.'

What do you remember about elementary school?

R: One of the biggest things is the teachers themselves. ... One teacher reallystands out in my K through five experience, and that was my fourth-gradeteacher. (Jerome, preservice elementary teacher)

What do you remember about English in high school?

Wow! I know there were teachers I liked. I remember Mr. that was mysophomore year English teacher, he was a really nice guy. (Mabel, preservicehigh school English teacher)

3 in the transcripts 7 stands for interviewer and "Ii! stands for respondent. Names of teachers are pseudonyms.

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What we learn in these general instances is the importance aspiring professionalsattached to the teacher's role. I suspect those aspiring to be lawyers, beauticians, and otheroccupations similarly testify to the contribution of a particular individual. Testimonies tothe importance of role highlight what is missing from the data: Stories suggesting equallywell-formed beliefs about subject matter, student learning, and other important facets ofschool life.

Beyond being "nice people," the teachers recalled were embedded in deep emotions.Out of 159 teachers explicitly described in the interviews, about half of the intervieweesreport close personal bonds with the teachers. In two thirds of those cases that relationship

was positive. Jill and Julia, two preservice teachers in the sample, also mention a teaching

technique along with the close personal bond. Perhaps their current purpose of becomingteachers causes them to mention the teaching technique. Not only do they believe teachersshould "care in general," they also believe teachers make a difference through specificpedagogy. The following quotes illustrate these beliefs.

There was one teacher that I had for algebra in 9th grade, for chemistry in11th grade, physics in 12th grade, and computer science in 12th Fade. Iworked for him during the summer and I remember that sort of thing becauseyou build a bond with a teacher to be a good influence. . . . I enjoyed mostthe classes where I got along well with the teacher. (Jessie, preservice highschool teacher)

I made a really strong friendship with one of my teachers and in fact she wasmy math teacher. I had her in 11th and 12th grade, she was also the one Iwas a teacher aide for . . she was important to me and that made adifference in the way I looked at things going on in the class. . . . You knowshe was the type of person all the students really liked her. . . . She is a reallypod teacher [respondent details a pedagogical practice showing how thisteacher got her to learn). It's really nice to have someone else besides Momand Dad sitting there and coaching you on. (Jill, preservice high schoolteacher)

First year in high school . . I didn't like science so I didn't participate muchin class. . . She started asking me questions to make me think aboutit . . . she would come up with things that pertain to -ny life and make melook at things in a scientific way. I went into the high science classes and justloved them from then on. (Julia, preservice high school teacher)

I was closer to the teachers. Especially one very strong friendship with ateacher . that I was closer to the teachers made me feel not like a normal

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student. . . . I got very close to my high school art teacher. And he was veryreligious, and I didn't know it until my sophomore year. And for the rest ofmy high school I became very close. . . . He's probably the biggest thing thatstands out in my mind. (Martha, preservice high school teacher)

Of those who mention close relationships with teachers, about a third of theinformants describe bonds that were less than positive. In these tales of bad teachers the

informant reports a personal dislike often seen as reciprocated by the teacher. They tell the

tale to illustrate a distance they felt between themselves and a bad teacher:

The second-grade teacher was not like that. A lot of times I ended up takingmy homework home because I didn't understand it in clas. It was the sameclass with the reading, I just sat there likeWhat am I supposed to do? (Jane,preservice elementary teacher)

He [high school math teacher] made it difficult for me when I asked aquestion. He made me, he belittled me when I asked questions and after thatI was afraid to ask anything. (Carmen, high school English teacher, inductionprogram)

I remember Mr. , my senior honors English teacher, he didn't like me. Iremember when I told him what school I'd applied to. And he said, "Don'tyou think you should apply somewhere else?" I remembe: thinking "Whatwould make you think I won't get in?". . . I remember being very offended byit. (Mabt I, preservice high school teacher)

She didn't help me at all. I'd go after class to find out what I am doingwrong. Tm doing well in all my subjects, all my other classes, I'm not [inyour class], I'm a pretty good student, and here in this one class . . . I'mbombing." She would just talk about everything and nothing and she wouldsay she'd do something but she didn't (11 it. The teacher took the paper toread and Immment on. She then duplicated the paper for the whole class andthey ripped it apartit was way beyond constructive criticism. (Jane,preservice elementary teacher)

These positive and negative snapshots of "the world as I see it" are highly

personalized. What do these views tell us about the informants' present beliefs about

teaching? They show that novice teachers in the TELT sample believe a personalrelationship between teacher and a student is a critical part of teaching. The remembranceserves to illustrate how these novices believe teacher-student relationships should be.

Although we might expect teachers to emphasize the personal aspects of teaching in

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elementary school, what is striking is how frequently these novices mention the importanceof personal relationships between secondary teachers and their students.

The tales, whether positive or negative, also express the importance of individualattention. In the negative cases, the individual reports a gulf between teacher and student.The teacher tales portray students who are confused or anxious and who feel isolated fromthe teacher. The teacher, according to the informant, does everything possible to maintaindistance through insensitivity, random or systematic humiliation, or an inability orunwillingness to explain the subject matter, and so forth.

In the positive tales we hear of bridging that gulf between student and teacher.Teachers are friends, parent surrogates, caring people who displayed a personal interest inthe academic career and social development of the informant. The interest the teachershowed in the informant extended both beyond the classroom and through time. Informants

claim they were friends with the teacher. They report meeting with these teachers outsidethe classroom on a social basis. They cite working for a teacher in a summer job as proofof the personal concern that the teacher took in their relationship. Informants also see therelationship they report as extending over time. The examples below are from informantsin their 20s and 30s who claim that the relationship between the teacher and themselves isstill active. Viewed 93 concrete descriptions of a novice's present beliefs and ideals-theyprovide a fascinating picture:

One teacher in particular, Mrs. , who I see from time to time now, she wasreal concerned about it [i.e., making sure the student had got the point theteacher wished to get across earlier], and I was a new student theft and shejust was real concerned about me learning. . . . I think she helped me with aspelling test as far as learning how to study my vocabulary. Well, she workedwith me after school on that. (Louise, preservice elementary teacher)

I think the most positive influences have been the teachers. I can rememberin second grade, where we had to write a poem about love, and you know, Ihanded it in and I forgot totally about it. And a few years ago I saw mysecond-grade teacher, and she said "Caroline, come here." And I go over toher and she pulls out her wallet, and out of her wallet she pulls this piece ofpaper and my poem is written on it. And I, mean, it is just really positiveexperiences like that have made me decide if I could influence people likethat I would feel fulfilled. (Caroline, high school English teacher, inductionprogram)

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Beyond the importance of personal closeness, we also see annther belief these

novices have about teachaig. The informants are quick to tell tales that show teachers gain

respect by behaving in one or a combination of three ways. The first way is showing care

and concern. With or without the sense of personal intimacy, these tales illustrate the belief

that teachers are part of a caring profession. The emphasis in the previous stories reported

a caring focused on the informant. In the following samples that caring begins to .rface

as a teacher's duty to care for all students.

Well, I did well through the algebra and geometry, and when we startedgetting trigonometry, I faltered a little there. rm not sure what it was. I

remember the teachers who were very helpful and got it across to me. (Jack,presemice elementary teacher)

Well, they P.lwar seemed very helpful and they had nice personali ies, at leastfrom my point of view as a child. (Lee, preservice elementary teacher)

She cared about the kids really learning. She picked up on what would makethem want to learn. She wasn't just interested in the subject matter, they'vegot to learn it, and if they don't, who cares? (Felice, induction elementaryteacher)

Oil the negative side, lack of caring figures as another theme. As in the positive caring

stories, informants demonstrate a generalized belief about how teachers ought to care.

One of them tried to be caring but it was one of those things they say childrencan detect [lack of care]. I didn't care for it at all. He tried to, but it didn'twork. (Louise, preservice elementary teacher)

I remember my fifth-grade teacher. . . . she was an older woman. She wasabout to retire and I think she had been teaching too long. She was notmean. She did not seem very motivated and I can remember that wasprobably my least favorite year in elementary school. The teacher would passout these big laminated worksheets and marldng pencils, . . . You could cheatoff yotu neighbor, you an worked together, she said this was okay with her.(Gail, preservice elementary teacher)

We had the worst chemistry department in high school. The teachers wouldget up and read out of the chemistry book. They would read a chapter to usfor 40 minutes. We would leave the room, we'd say I read that last night, we

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hated that class. So we stopped reading at night, and heard it in class.(Melissa, preservice English teacher)

The second way to gain respect is to be innovative or take risks in your teaching.Fewer novices told stories that illustrated this belief.

She made math fun . . she made it fun in an artistic way. I loved art inschool, and I don't know how she did it, but we did a sewing thing, withgeometric shapes. (Felice, induction elementary teacher)

I don't necessarily think of him as a good teacher. . . . He got some thingsacross. He was oblivious to the outside world, very introspective. He woulddo a proof on the board, the typical calculus way that we were supposed todo, as what we were learning in the textbook. And then he would laugh andhe'd say, "Well, you could do it this way too," and he'd do it by geometry orhe would prove it to us by algebra. "Well you won't learn that until the thirdyear of college." [She describes the disbelieving reaction of students to this.]But he really showed us that there's more than one approach to a problem!The really neat thing about him that I respected was that if you could figureout a different way to do it, he would accept that way just as well. (Mavis,preservice elementary teacher)

We read things that people thought we shouldn't read. Not because theywere risque or anything. But they were too far above us intellectually. Shemore or less let us know we cculd read anything we wanted to and we couldunderstand it if we put our minds to it. . . . She explained it to us and we hada lot of discussion. I had never been in an English class where there was alot of discussion. (Lara, preservice elementary teacher)

The third way to gain student respect was having the ability to communicate withstudents. The following quotations represent short parts of the tales they told to illustratethis belief:

I had an English teacher that I thought was great my sophomore year. Thatwas the only year in high school that I really enjoyed English. He talked tothe students on their own level. . . . We had to write an essay a week and wecould write it on anything that we wanted. (Molly, preservice elementaryteacher)

They [honors class teachers] came right out and said, "I expect a great dealof you, you will do this better." If you did something disappointing, they just

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gave it back to you. "Do it over." They never let you think you could getaway with doing half a job. (Melissa, preservice English teacher)

These two tales show two types of communication. The rust example illustrates the

belief that teachers should communicate with students at their own level. The second

example represents a belief about the ability of teachers to communicate either their

expectations or the subject matter clearly to students. This second belief among novices

shows up fairly frequently in the tales they tell and is particularly clear when they give a

negative instance:

[high school English teacher] You would hand in papers or something andshe would get them back like the day before the test. . . . You can make thesame mistake on the next paper and would not know that you did on the fustone. (Gertrude, preservice math teacher)

It [independent learning] was all at your own pace and I didn't like that at all.You'd hand in the stuff and he'd correct it. . . . You didn't learn anything,because if you didn't understand it, he really didn't put all that much effortinto trying to get you to understand. There were 20 other kids that haddifferent problems because you were all working at your own pace. . . . I wasvery discouraged. (Lee, preservice elementary teacher)

Discussion and Implications

You could simply tell Leewhose teacher tale is the last I quoted abovehis belief

is wrong but I suspect he would not listen. Lee, a preservice elementary teacher candidate,

reveals the potential such stories could serve to justify present practice. He has an

emotionally charged tale supposedly based on a "bad teacher" he had. He describes how

isolated and confused he felt as a student. He used this tale to counter the suggestion by

a teacher education program that individualized instruction in elementary mathematics

might be a useful approach. Whether Lee's experience shaped his belief or the belief

shaped the experience is his psychoanalyst's problem, not his teacher educator's.

Floden and Huberman (1989) note how selective recollection is (for example,

Bartlett, 1932; Nisbett & Wilson, 1980). They claim these recollections represent unreliable

reports of past experience and thinking. For this analysisand for teacher

educatorswhether the informants report the past with veracity is immaterial. Instead, these

teacher tales represent accurate reports of present beliefs and attitudes. Support for this

interpretation also came from the consistency with which this belief of novices appeared.

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The convictions described in the novices' teacher tales were consistent with the

reasons they gave for becoming a teacher. When informants stated that they enjoyedcommunicating with students, they often ascribed a similar attribute to a former teacher."1 like kids" the ubiquitous rationale for entering teaching was frequently followed by a story

of how a former teacher "liked" their students (including themselves) in some way.

This consistency was maintained elsewhere in the interviews. An informant tells a

positive tale about a patient mathematics teacher. In another part of the interview the same

informant tells of an impatient engineer father unable to discuss the ideas of math despite

an apparent aptitude for the subject. Another informant cites being in tune with the

emotions of students as a goal of teachinga belief reiterated later in the interview by a

negative tale about an elementary teacher who forced that informant to beat herself on the

hand in front of the class. She refused to go to school for a week because ofembarrassment.

In a couple of cases the novices confess their confusion over the significance of the

tales they tell. They reveal some of the struggle to achieve the consistency Floden andHuberman (1989) describe. One novice portrayed a teaching nun as difficult anddemanding. In this tale the teacher stimulated learning by fear and yet, on later reflection,got credit for "teaching me something I have to thank her for." The novice's currentconfusion suggests the memory from the past is where some change needs to occur.Teaching nuns, like mothers-in-law, make good stereotype material for comedians and toentertain friends with. For a prospective teacher, tales like "Sister Scary" serve asprofessional pumles for a novice teacher (so does "Mr. Fun-Times-But-No-Learning"). Thisnovice believes teachers should not use fear, but the "Sister Nasty" tale suggests theopposite. I see this tale as a plea for assistance on the part of the novice, a plea the teacher

educator can respond to,The role of these novice tales can be contrasted with the role of stories in

philosophical argument. Like the philosopher, the novice teacher constructs a tale toillustrate belief. But the philosophers' purpose is to persuade the reader about their belief.They make no claim that the illustration represents truth or reality. Novices, on the otherhand, use the illustration en a warram for their belief. The philosopher has kept the twoviews of the worldthat is, "as it is" and "as it seems"separate (Williams, 1985), while thenovice teacher may transform an illustration, into justifying evidence. The novice claims abelief in friendship, produces a memory to support that belief, then merges the belief andthe anecdote so now the tale stands as proof, not merely as illustration, of the belief. The

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tale about a friendship between teacher and student becomes the confirmation for how

things should be.The teacher tales represent a rich collage of beliefs about teachers and teaching.

The informants focus on the importance of the teacher's role and building a teacher's sense

of self. They attach great significance to the teacher who establishes and maintains a bond

between teacher and student. On the darker side, they believe bad teachers deliberately

avoid or, through insensitivity, frustrate such relationships. Novices believe in the care a

teacher should show that extends to all students over long periods of time. While we might

be comforted that a novice express a belief in care and concern, we might also ask whether

these ideals foster successful teaching. How, for example, does a secondary school teacher

achieve the individual intimacy described in the teacher tales with students they see for only

an hour a day? Instead of realiiing that ideal relationship with all 150 or so students they

teach, secondary teachers are more likely to select a few students. A seemingly

noncontroversial belief could be used to justify selecting a few favored students based on

the individual teacher's particular criterion of teacher-student intimacy. Student docility,

gender, ethnicity, or personal appearance represent some disturbing criteria a teacher might

choose to select students with whom they form that "special bond."

Teacher tales provide a useful way to access what novices believe. As I have just

done, teacher educators and students can construct some interesting and challenging

propositions about teachers and teaching based on personal stories the students tell. The

key is to view the teacher tale as the object of a conversation and not a report of the past.

A discussion that teases out the beliefs embedded in the story provides an excellent

opportunity for the reflection so many now advocatereflection arising from what at first

blush is unproblematic. If, as I suggest, these pictures of practice come charged with

emotion, then teacher educators do need to support the novices. The educator needs to be

a supportive challenger if this reasoning comes with emotional power.

In the educator's favor is what Buchmann (1987a) calls a loose connection between

premises and intended action. Each novice needs a chance to consider alternative

explanations for the plotpoor classroom management, lack of teacher subject matter

knowledge, or a host of other possibilities that might equally well explain what happened.

Within each tale lies a wealth of "teachable (or, more correctly, learning) moments."

Reflection by the novice alone could lead merely to &eater rationalization for current

beliefs. Personal doctrines require exposure in the public world of teaching. In a supportive

but challenging environment the teacher educator can make use of teacher tales. They

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provide an opportunity to model directly the shape of enquiry we hope tomorrow's teachers

might take into their classroom.These old photographs do not represent the foundation of teacher education. They

simply represent one source of material which assists teacher candidates to gi-ow intoreflective professionals. A photograph or teacher tale is a tool with a multitude of uses.Ignore the beliefs a novice brings to their training in these tales and, as Mary Kennedy

observed, we sometimes see the outcome:

A funny thing happens to teachers faced with a roomful of fifth graders. Theyforget what they learned in high-priced teacher education classes. Whatcomes out of their mouths is exactly what they heard when they were in fifthgrade. (Quoted in Schimpf, 1990, p. 10)

The potential of the past to create the future is well documented. The more exciting

possibilities lie in our capacity to reinterpret the past making it useful in the present.Teacher tales represent one reasonable point to initiate revision of the past and, moreimportantly, challenge present belief.

Rthrences

Ball, D. L, & McDiarmid, G. W. (1988). Research on teacher learning: Studying howteachers' knowledge changes. Action in Teacher Education, 10(2), 17-23.

Bartlett, F. C. (1932). Remembering: 1 study in etperimental and social psycholog.Cambridge, England: The University Press.

Buchmann, M. (1987a). Impractical philosophizing about teachers' arguments. EducationalTheory, 37, 409-411.

Buchmann, M. (1987b). Role over person: Justifying teacher action and decisions.Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 31(1), 1-21.

Floden, R. E., & Huberman, M. (1989). Teachers' professional lives: The state of the art.International Journal of Educational Research, 13, 455-466.

Feiman-Nemser, S., & Buchmann, M. (1986). Pitfalls of experience in teacher education.In J. ID, Raths & L G. Katz (Eds.), Advances in teacher education (Vol. 2, pp. 61-72). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Huberman, M. (1989). On teachers' careers: Once over lightly, with a broad- brush.International Journal of Educational Research, 13, 347-362.

Little, J. W. (1981). School success and staff development: The mle of staff development inurban desegregated schools (ME No. 400-79-0049). Boulder: University of Colorado,Center for Action Research.

Lortie, D. (1975). Schoolteacher: A sociological study. Chicago: University of ChicagoPress.

NCRTE. (1988). Teacher education and learning to teach: A research agenda (Issue Paper88-7). East Lansing: Michigan State University, National Center for Research onTeacher Education.

Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. (1980). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports onmental processes. Psychological Review, 84, 231-259.

Schinr S. (1990, September). [Interview with Mary M. Kennedy, Director, NationalCenter for Research on Teacher Education]. Lansing State Journal, p. 1D.

Williams, B. (1985). Ethics and the limits of philosophy. Cambridge, MA: HarvardUniversity Press.

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Zeichner, K. M., Tabernick, B. R.., & Densmore, K. (1987). Individual, institutional, and

cultural influences on the development of teachers' craft knowledge. In 3.Calderhead (Ed.), Exploring teachers' thinking (pp. 21-59). New York: Cassell.

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